The economy in a video game can seriously make or break a game. A game that makes it way too easy or way too hard to make enough money to play the game can be pretty tough, and it can be a lot less fun to play because of that. While making money isn’t really the goal of most games, being able to get enough currency to buy or trade for the things you need is definitely important.
While the economy isn’t necessarily something that most people think about when they’re playing games, some games have such unusual economies that it’s hard to miss how odd they are.
To see 10 games with the most unusual economies, keep reading!
10 Animal Crossing Series
The Animal Crossing series is definitely one example of a game where the economy is just crazy. First of all, Tom Nook basically forces you into debt. By moving into town in Animal Crossing games, you’re automatically given a house by Tom Nook and then he gives you the bill for how much you’re going to have to pay him back.
Buying and selling things is pretty crazy, too. Items in Animal Crossing: New Leaf are purchased from Timmy and Tommy’s store and then, if you want to resell them, they sell for 25% of the original price. But, rare event items sell for next to nothing. For instance, the Egg Set can only be obtained during Bunny Day, but almost every item sells for a mere 80 bells.
9 Skyrim
The economy in Skyrim is so absurd that there are actually mods to help fix it and make the entire system work better. One of the main complaints about the game that fans have is the fact that items may be rare in the lore, but they’re actually pretty common to find or easy to craft, meaning they’re really not that rare.
Another problem is the fact that although the Speech skill can help players talk down prices or sell items for more money, there’s rarely ever a shortage of cash in Skyrim, so players are better off spending their skill points elsewhere because those bonuses will do basically nothing for them.
8 Dying Light
If you’ve ever checked your inventory in Dying Light and seen the value of a weapon or item that you’re holding, you’ve probably gotten pretty excited to see that the value is really high. But then, going to a vendor to try to sell it so you can buy some supplies or a blueprint for a better weapon will show you that the value was completely wrong.
Welcome to the zombie apocalypse! The value on the weapon that you see is typically around 10 times what it will actually sell for. Money isn’t that hard to come by and selling things like jewel pouches can help you to get tons of cash. But still, the value displayed versus the actual selling price is pretty strange.
7 Minecraft
Minecraft is a game in which players can do literally anything they want. The sandbox-style of the game allows players to build, explore, and play the game as they choose, without any real rules or goals that they don’t set themselves or that don’t come from a mod.
But, as anyone familiar with Minecraft will know, the economic system as it exists in the game is pretty strange. For one thing, gold armor is actually kind of useless. Although you’d expect this precious metal to make great armor and weapons, diamond is actually better. And while diamond makes the best items, emeralds are more sought after by villagers. And those villagers offer some crazy trades in order to get those precious emeralds.
6 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a game that was released with the Nintendo Switch and has become an insanely popular installment in the long-running Legend of Zelda franchise.
Even though this game and its open-world are a ton of fun, the economy is a little strange for a few reasons. For one thing, the vendors will buy absolutely anything from Link with their apparent endless supply of cash. On top of that, Link can also find money in a ton of unusual places - including randomly hidden in the grass that he slices with his sword. Who left that there?
5 Grand Theft Auto V
Looking up tips for Grand Theft Auto V will take the player to video after video and article after article about how to make tons of cash in the game. And there’s a reason for that, everything in the game is crazy-expensive.
Since GTA V and GTA Online were released, new items and new updates have been released. With each of them, there are new weapons, properties, and vehicles that are added to the game. But each time a new update comes and new items are released, it seems like the average price of these items goes up, but the money that you’re getting for doing jobs stays the same.
4 Terraria
The main thing about Terraria’s economy that makes no sense is the fact that there really isn’t one. The game is designed so that players can get money and items without a ton of effort, keeping it fun and simple to play the game by your own rules.
Unless you play the game with other people and want to trade your items for theirs, there’s no economic system. You can purchase things from traders and sell to them in order to get currency, but even that is simply a form of trading.
3 The Sims 4
The Sims 4 is a life simulation game in which players can do whatever they want. From creating a character to controlling their life, it’s all up to you! But, the economic system in the game is a little strange. Luckily, players can cheat to give their Sim all the money they want, so it’s not that bad.
But it’s hard not to notice how unusual some aspects of it of. For instance, bills are based on the worth of your Sim’s house and all the items in it, not how much they’re making or how long they leave the lights on. Luckily, some of the careers can allow you to make thousands of Simoleons per week, so it’s not hard to stay on top of the bills.
2 Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is an RPG in which the player assumes the role of a former city slicker who recently inherited their grandfather’s farm and moved out of the city to start running the farm.
The game’s economy is pretty unusual, and you’re completely in charge of making your own money. One of the main things that make the game’s economy strange is the fact that the quality of raw ingredients does nothing to change the quality of the artisan goods that you’re creating. A regular blueberry and a gold star blueberry will both produce the same quality bottle of wine if left in a cask even though those blueberries would sell for different prices.
1 Resident Evil Series
The Resident Evil series of survival horror games has been around since the 1990s. Despite the fact that these games have been around so long and have gotten so popular, it’s hard to deny that they have a pretty unusual economy.
The game that shows this the best is Resident Evil 6. This game has skill points, similar to the money used in previous games to buy upgrades. After getting enough skill points, the player can purchase a variety of different upgrades, one of which is infinite ammo for various different weapons. No more searching endlessly for rare ammo for your favorite gun, you just have to pay tens of thousands of skill points.
